The modern day pursuit of hunting game often involves motorized vehicles. Commonly, hunters use motorized vehicles, such as pickup trucks or sports utility vehicles, to move from location to location during a hunting trip. Modern day hunters may usefully transport themselves and their hunting rifle from location to location, scouting areas that may be conveniently situated for hunting game and tracking potential targets. Once an ideal location for hunting is found or a potential target is spotted, the hunter may need to quickly disembark from the motorized vehicle with the hunting rifle and take up an ideal stance for shooting at the spotted target, so as to successfully shoot the target before it moves to another location.
Thus, a hunter may need to quickly get in and out of a vehicle with the hunting rifle multiple times during a hunting trip to scout out ideal locations for shooting potential targets. As a hunter travels in a motorized vehicle to a new location, it is very inconvenient to have to store a hunting rifle in its case for transport, especially when short and frequent trips are made by vehicle to various locations. As such, the hunter may transport a rifle in a vehicle by resting the stock of the hunting rifle between the driver's leg and either the centre console of the motorized vehicle or the door on the left-hand side of the driver, with the barrel of the rifle pointing downwards and touching the floor of the vehicle. This method of transporting a hunting rifle, even for a short distance, is generally not recommended, as the barrel of the rifle may become fouled with debris or mud, or readily slide out of position and interfere with the operation of the brake or gas pedal, possibly resulting in an accidental crash.
Another option may be to rest the stock of the hunting rifle against the passenger seat of the vehicle; however, with the barrel of the rifle resting in the footwell of the passenger side of the vehicle, the hunting rifle is at significant risk of damage caused by being jostled around during transport due to the constant motion of the vehicle, especially while travelling over uneven terrain, thereby potentially causing damage to the rifle by contact with either the floor of the vehicle or the surrounding center console and door panels, etc. Additionally, there is often excessive mud, rocks, dirt, water, snow and other debris in the footwells of the vehicle, which may soil, scratch or otherwise damage the hunting rifle. Thus, it is desirable to have a gun holder for a motorized vehicle that will stably support a hunting rifle in a position within the cab of the vehicle so as to make the hunting rifle readily accessible during transport.
In the prior art of which the applicant is aware, it is disclosed to provide gun racks or mounts within motorized vehicles that are made to support a long-barrelled gun so as to be readily accessed by a person riding in the motorized vehicle. However, several of such prior art racks or mounts for vehicles require significant time and effort to install; for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,692,069 to Winters discloses a gun rack that bolts to the seat frame of a vehicle, while each of U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,499 to McCue and U.S. Pat. No. 6,986,446 to Murray et al disclose gun racks or mounts which are bolted to the floor of a vehicle.
Other prior art of which the applicant is aware, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,447 to Jorgensen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,102 to Jacobsen and U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,850 to Ryder, disclose gun carriers, support systems or gun racks which require multiple straps so as to secure the gun carriers or support systems to various portions of the vehicle, such as the center console or the seat bench, or otherwise utilize telescoping arms to resiliently support a gun rack underneath the dash of a vehicle, as is the case in the Ryder patent.
Each of the installation methods described above require significant time and effort, and similarly, significant time and effort is required to remove such devices or systems from a vehicle, in order to, for example, readily use these devices or systems in other vehicles. Furthermore, each of the devices or systems described above may be particularly suited to a specific design of the interior of a given vehicle, such as a specific seat design or center console design, which may render these installation methods unsuitable for variations in seats, dashes or center consoles in various different makes and models of vehicles. Thus, there is a need for a gun holder adapted to support a hunting rifle or other long-barreled gun or elongated weapon within a vehicle during transport which may be easily installed in, and removed from, suitable vehicles without requiring much time, effort, or tools to install or remove the gun holder. The nature of such suitable vehicles will become apparent to the reader, having regard to the description which follows below.
In other prior art, of which the applicant is aware, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,793,108 issued to Williams, Jr. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,793,109 issued to Gates et al, there is disclosed holding devices adapted to be bolted to an elongate support structure, such as a railing on a rack extension plate of an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). To distort the teaching of Williams, Jr. and Gates et al, each of these holding devices have a “base” or lower end that could conceivably slide into a cup holder in a front console of another vehicle, such as a truck or SUV, and thereby possibly assist in supporting a long-barreled gun or other elongate weapon within the cab of the vehicle. However, each of the holders disclosed in the Williams and Gates patents have “bases”, or lower ends, that would not be stable when slid into the cup holders of a vehicle, and would therefore experience a large range of motion while mounted in a cup holder, especially while the vehicle is travelling over rough terrain. In particular, the lower end of the Williams holder comprises a pair of parallel flanges with rounded edges, which would cause the holder to roll around and tilt within a cup holder, and would likely tumble out of the cup holder with any movement of the vehicle. The Gates holder includes an oval-shaped base which would also likely tilt within a cup holder.
Furthermore, the applicant is also aware of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/445,763 by applicant Duncan, which discloses a holster for receiving and holding a hand gun that mounts into a cup holder of a vehicle. The Duncan holster is adapted for holding a hand gun or similarly-sized weapon, and is not suitable for holding a long-barreled gun or similarly-sized, elongated weapon.
Therefore, there is a need for a holding device for a long-barreled gun or other elongate weapon that may be easily mounted in a cup holder of a vehicle and which would stably support the long-barreled gun or other elongate weapon during transport in the vehicle, even when travelling over somewhat rough terrain.